30 July 2024
Bullying is a word that many people associate with high school or their earlier years in life. The unfortunate truth is that bullying can and does exist even in professional spaces, perpetrated by adults. According to a survey, half of all Australians experience workplace bullying. It happens across industries, and to employees of varying demographics.
Preventing bullying at work, or having measures in place to respond to instances of bullying, is an employer’s responsibility. Not only does being the target of bullying negatively impact an employee’s performance and the business as a whole, bullying also has legal repercussions that employers can be held liable for.
Simply knowing what workplace bullying is doesn’t cover employer responsibility—having appropriate measures for what to do in case bullying occurs is what we recommend for businesses. In this article, we’ll go through three real-life cases of workplace bullying, and look at the impacts of bullying on those involved.
Before we go into examples of workplace bullying, how does the law define bullying? What is bullying behaviour?
The Fair Work Act (FW Act) states that bullying at work happens when:
Examples of bullying can range from using offensive language or verbal abuse, to teasing or playing practical jokes, to excluding someone from work-related events. Bullying isn’t when a supervisor or manager enacts genuine and reasonable disciplinary procedures or performance management.
Now that we’ve briefly defined workplace bullying, let’s discuss three cases of bullying and their impacts on employers and employees alike.
Take this case of a company who paid $1.36M to a labourer who was proven to be sexually harassed at work.
Bullying behaviour: A female employee at a construction company suffered psychiatric injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She endured sexually explicit remarks and threatening comments such as “I will take you into the container and f*** you.” She also received a rape threat, which she reported to HR. This report was met with an invitation for her to come to this person’s place, and as well, received an anonymous call from a male calling her a “c***.”
Impact on the employee: The employee didn’t return to work after her attempt to report her experience to HR. She suffered psychiatric injuries including depression and PTSD.
Impact on the employer: Upon taking the case to court, the employer was found negligent in allowing this toxic behaviour in the workplace. The employer paid out $1.36M, a substantial amount, upon being found guilty of the charges.
The negative effects can be clearly seen: from the injuries the employee suffered, to the financial compensation that the employer was obligated to pay, to the damage to the reputation of the business. It was proven that the business failed in providing a safe workplace for its employees.
Having a Bullying and Harassment Policy in place is a great start to ensuring staff and management know what bullying behaviour is. However, in this case study, it’s clear that having a policy isn’t enough—a business has to take steps to properly address bullying and harassment in accordance with the policy.
Bullying behaviour: An employee experienced bullying and harassment by her store manager after returning from parental leave. She was excluded from business discussions, received unwarranted criticism of past and present performance, and was repeatedly spoken to in an ‘aggressive and nasty tone’ by her store manager (Employee Assistance). The employee reported to the State Business Manager of the treatment she was receiving, but was told to “put some lippy on.”
Impact on the employee: The employee was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder as a result of the continued bullying and harassment, even after she attempted to report it to a manager in the business.
Impact on the employer: The Supreme Court of Queensland found that the employer was negligent in its duty to handle the employee’s complaint. In ignoring the employee’s report, despite having a Bullying and Harassment Policy in place, the Court concluded that the psychiatric injury the employee suffered was due to the employer breaching its duty of care to its workers.
Carrying on from the previous example, it’s clear that having a policy about bullying and harassment doesn’t fulfil an employer’s duty of care to its employees.
In this case study, the business had well-drafted policies but the existence of these policies weren’t enough to stop or even curb the behaviour. The worker in this case was an employee of a security company and was contracted by another business to provide security at its premises.
Bullying behaviour: The Fijian-born employee suffered verbal attacks from a manager, who called him a ‘coconut head, monkey-face, black man.’ He also suffered sexual assault, and even threats to his life. He complained to a general manager about the bullying he was receiving from their client, but was told to just ‘hang in there.’
Impact on the employee: As a result of this treatment, the employee suffered major mental and physical incapacitation, and was hospitalised. The NSW Supreme Court ruled that he would be ‘an emotional cripple for the rest of his life.’
Impact on the employer: The Court ruled that while the employer wasn’t aware of the racial slurs or the details of the specific incidents, they failed in protecting their employee from the client. Policies around workplace bullying existed in the business. However, a lack of communication and training for management resulted in the bullying claims not being investigated, which only led to the employee being subjected to abhorrent behaviour.
Bullying clearly has negative effects on a workplace. Employers and employees suffer alike, albeit with different impacts to each.
A common thread running through these case studies was that while these businesses had policies about bullying and harassment, they didn’t enforce them or managers weren’t equipped to deal with complaints about bullying behaviour.
Having policies that define what bullying behaviour isn’t enough—employers must also ensure that those in management know what to do if complaints arise, and even how to escalate complaints to HR or an outsourced third party.
HR plays a big role in creating safe and inclusive workplaces, and that includes ensuring that toxicity and harmful behaviours are mitigated. If you’d like to see what this would look like for your business, give our team a call.
